Last Wednesday my son (will be 19 June 10th) and I put in at Karthaus, Pennsylvania for a four day trip down the West Branch of the Susquehanna River in North-Central PA.
We've done this trip before -- back when he and I each had more time (we paddled 218 miles from Shawville to Harrisburg, PA in 7 1/2 days).
This time we planned to do a subsection and end up close enough to friends in Lancaster to allow an easy pickup and truck retrieval. We planned to arrive at Rivers Edge campground near Northumberland and await pickup there Sunday morning.
The weather was perfect Wednesday morning as we drove the 3 ½ hours from home to Karthaus. The area around Karthaus is very remote – there are a few small, widely-scattered towns (collections of houses, really), a few defunct farms, and lots of trees and state game lands.
The Pennsylvania Fish and game commission has an access point on the south side of the river near Karthaus. We parked (the only vehicle there), unloaded our gear, loaded up the Wenonah Royalex Spirit II canoe, and shoved off at 1030 AM.
The first day we planned to travel 43 miles. The current is steady, with a few stretches of riffles here and there. At 3 foot on the Karthaus gage there was no whitewater to expect, but we had enough flow to avoid scraping through Buttermilk Falls.
We paddled until one, pulled over on a small rocky peninsula and made a quick lunch of canned beef stew, wheat thins, and animal crackers and apple sauce. 40 minutes later we were back on the river. Except for a few very brief stops for bio-breaks, we were on the river until 8:45 that night. We cut it very close, but riverside camping options are few along this stretch (road on one side, railroad on the other).
The river here is fairly remote as it is hemmed in tight between four to five hundred foot high ridges on either side. Much of the land is state owned – game commission or state forests. This is wild Elk country, but we didn’t hear or see any Elk. We did pass a black bear carcass on the side of the river. Was he a victim of a flash flood? On our last trip we spotted a bear swimming across the river. Perhaps this one tried on a day when the current was a bit too strong.
The first town we passed is Keating – a small collection of houses across from a steep ridge on the opposite shore. A few miles east we passed Renovo, a former railroad maintenance facility town that has seen better days. We didn’t stop as we were racing the sun, so we each consumed an MRE as we floated along in the 2-3 MPH current.
After Renovo, we looked for Hyner View – a small state park with a scenic overlook at the top of the ridge on the north side of the river. By now the sun was fading in the west, and we still had about 5 miles to go (a steady hour’s paddling).
We paddled steadily, until we reached McClosky Island – a gorgeous, 1.5 mile long island that splits the river a few miles south of Hyner View. As we approached the campsite -- an elevated patch at the very eastern tip – the sun was gone and by now we were paddling in slowly fading twilight.
Finally, after 10 hours on the river, we arrived at the campsite. I ran the tent and chow bag up to the site while Nathaniel secured the canoe and other gear. In 15 minutes we had camp set up and dinner cooking. It was completely dark by the time we had the canoe secured.
The site is flat, cleared, and clean -- obviously conscientious paddlers that use this small patch of private property are caring for it so it can be used again. We did not break with the pattern and left no trace.
Morning came quickly, but I kept hearing the sound of a turbine-powered prop plane doing turns about a point. It was slightly foggy, but VFR conditions. I finally crawled out of my sleeping bag and caught a glimpse of a yellow Ag-Cat doing low passes over the forest on the north shore (We saw him later downstream and figured he was probably spraying for gypsy moths).
The second day we were on the river by 8 and enjoyed decent current and spectacular views. While the river is less wild here -- a road runs up along the hillside on the right shore and a railroad is on the left (though we saw now moving trains and heard very few cars) –- the river flows through an ever-widening valley.
We enjoyed the dry air and brilliant sunshine as the day warmed. Before lunchtime we were paddling the four mile pool formed by the dam at Lock Haven. Soon we saw the enormous flood wall on river left that is meant to protect Lock Haven from the next Agnes flood. Instead it blocks the entire town from river views, and gives the river a Soviet ambience.
We secured the canoe and headed into town where the local Subway provided lunch. We refilled our water container at a local outfitter and headed back to the hard work or portaging.
The Lock Haven portage is the easiest on the Susquehanna system. There is a rip-rap ramp about 100’ upstream from the dam, and another 100’ below. We canoed to the ramp, unloaded everything, and moved the gear – I carried everything halfway, Nathaniel picked it up and moved it to the end. It was a good system and we had it all moved in no time.
We put in to the welcome fast current and headed downstream at 3. The heat of the day was past and we enjoyed the swift current and the changing scenery.
Bald Eagle creek empties into the Susquehanna just below Lock haven, and the change to the river is dramatic. Instead of sterile, clear acid-mine-drainage water, the river now became dark green and filled with life. We spotted more and more birds, fish, and plants. We even saw several stonefly and mayflies emerging (too bad this river is dammed and too warm for trout!)
We put in below the Route 220 Bridge and walked to Avis, where we visited a small convenience store. Three years ago we were here and the place was like an oven. Sure enough: “The AC is broke…” (I think the owners don’t want to turn on air conditioning before Memorial Day). We bought some Iced tea, Ice Cream, water, and pretzels.
We walked the mile and a half back, and started paddling again. We wanted to find a campsite further downstream so we could get most of the next day’s lake paddling done before lunch. We found a nice level site on river left about a mile before Pine creek. The site was on a small bench below an enormous flat field east of Avis. We kept a low profile (no fires, etc) and used the Sun Shower. Our dinner of canned chili and instant mashed potatoes was surprisingly good.
The wind picked up as night fell, and soon I was concerned about the limbs directly over our tent. They held, and the next morning dawned bright and clear. We were on the river by 7 AM, and quickly made progress towards Williamsport. We stopped in Jersey Shore for a quick bio-break, and then continued a steady paddle downstream.
By now the river is agricultural at the bottom of a very wide valley. Far in the distance on the right Bald Eagle ridge marked the south side of the valley. The northern side was not visible from river level. There are more houses, and more noise from traffic on the busy roads along the north shore. After a quick ride through some welcome riffles twelve miles of dead water paddling and a difficult portage lay ahead. But a short walk from the base of the dam lay the local Wegmans grocery store – with delicious Sub sandwiches, cannolis, fruit, and other edibles waiting for us.
We kept up a steady 4 miles per hour on the flatwater section, and by 1230 we were tied up to the rip-rap on the upstream side of the dam. We secured our gear and headed to Wegmans!
Lunch was as good as we expected despite the store being unbearably crowded. We picked up some bagels, muffins, water, and fruit and head back to the canoe and the portage.
The guide describes a portage, but I have no idea what they are talking about. So we carefully paddled up the northern shore after scouting the route. We hopped out and pulled the canoe as close to the dam as possible, then tied it up.
The portage wasn’t as hard as last time (it had been 93 degrees that day – today, it was 84 and some high clouds were helping reduce the intensity of the sun). We had packed less and consumed all our heavy food before reaching this spot. Plus we had a better system – one of us dragged gear up, the other down. Soon all the gear was moved to the downstream side of the dam. We lifted the canoe and moved it as well.
A half hour after starting the portage we were back in the water enjoying the revived current and some fresh oranges and bagels.
The river below Williamsport changes character yet again as the ridge closes in on the right and civilization fades northward. The houses and cottages are fewer and fewer, and soon the river seems wild again, with a welcome current steadily flowing south and east. We hit the best riffles of the trip on this stretch, with a complete wave lapping over the gunwales and dumping a couple of gallons of river into the bottom. A large, dark cloud appeared over the ridge to our right. I kept an eye on it – it looked like a precursor to a thunderstorm. We decided to push on to a campground in Montgomery where there would be showers and shelter.
We made our way past Muncy and the long impressive brick wall of the Wallis Mansion dating to colonial times along river left. We passed the railroad bridge that cost the lives of seven passengers on The Last Raft, a 1938 living history project which struck a bridge pier and upset the raft, towing all but one of the 47 people aboard into the chilly March water.
After Muncy the river slows again and forms a long pool, with vacation homes and trailers perched up on the right bank, and steep but short ridge enclosing the left. At the end of the pool a few islands mark the next stretch of riffles as the river plunges a couple of feet to the next pool. We ran these riffles in center stream, enjoyed the bit of action, and then paddled for Montgomery on the right bank.
Montgomery has tremendous playground facilities for such a small town – a skate park, a gorgeous Little League baseball park, slides, swings – the works. We planned on staying at a campground which was right on the edge of the river and had hot showers and shelter in case the dark clouds were in fact thunderstorms.
I failed to consider that the Friday night of Memorial Day weekend is most likely the busiest day of the year for campgrounds. I asked for a site close to the river to minimize the portaging. We ended up about 300 yards from the river. We had the showers to ourselves (25 cents for 10 minutes of water through a coin operated device) and a passel of noisy, obnoxious teenage boys in a tent right behind us. The folks across from us were pleasant and invited us to dinner.
At 930 the kids behind us were bothersome. At 1030 they were insufferable – especially after little brother joined them. The kid was hopped up on Mountain Dew and Yoo-Hoo, and would let out a blood-curdling scream every 3 minutes or so. The mother would poke her head in the tent every ten minutes or so and threaten all sorts of damage. Two minutes later the kids were back at it. A trip to the office resulted in a complaint lodged – apparently this camp means it when they threaten to evict campers that break curfew. They got quiet in a hurry – of course by now it was 1130 and our day had started at 5.
We wanted to be on the river early the next day to dodge the predicted thunderstorms. We resolved to be on the water by 7, which meant a 530 AM wakeup. I had time as I waited for sleep to concoct a plan for the morning.
We were up and packed by 645 or so. I found a nice large split log, warned the nice people that there might be a loud noise. The site picnic table was about a yard away from the tent. The sound of the log smacking that table reverberated throughout the entire campsite – it sounded like an M-16 on 3 round burst.
Then, I leaned into the tent and reverted to OCS TAC Officer / Drill Sergeant/ Command voice and yelled (very loudly): “GOOD MORNING, CUPCAKE! TIME TO RISE AND SHINE!!”
Needless to say, this was a rather surprising morning greeting for the tent filled with delinquents- in-training.
We hopped in our canoe and let out a few more wake up yells for the benefit of all, and headed downstream munching on bagels and muffins.
We paddled the last 11 miles to Milton State Park, where I contacted Enterprise, reserved a car, and we began the tasks of shuttling gear and cars to get everything where it needed to be. Rain was falling and thunderstorms were threatening. Since I already have plenty of punches in my man-card, and practicing being miserable is not on my to-do list, we called it a trip and headed for Lancaster.
We've done this trip before -- back when he and I each had more time (we paddled 218 miles from Shawville to Harrisburg, PA in 7 1/2 days).
This time we planned to do a subsection and end up close enough to friends in Lancaster to allow an easy pickup and truck retrieval. We planned to arrive at Rivers Edge campground near Northumberland and await pickup there Sunday morning.
The weather was perfect Wednesday morning as we drove the 3 ½ hours from home to Karthaus. The area around Karthaus is very remote – there are a few small, widely-scattered towns (collections of houses, really), a few defunct farms, and lots of trees and state game lands.
The Pennsylvania Fish and game commission has an access point on the south side of the river near Karthaus. We parked (the only vehicle there), unloaded our gear, loaded up the Wenonah Royalex Spirit II canoe, and shoved off at 1030 AM.
The first day we planned to travel 43 miles. The current is steady, with a few stretches of riffles here and there. At 3 foot on the Karthaus gage there was no whitewater to expect, but we had enough flow to avoid scraping through Buttermilk Falls.
We paddled until one, pulled over on a small rocky peninsula and made a quick lunch of canned beef stew, wheat thins, and animal crackers and apple sauce. 40 minutes later we were back on the river. Except for a few very brief stops for bio-breaks, we were on the river until 8:45 that night. We cut it very close, but riverside camping options are few along this stretch (road on one side, railroad on the other).
The river here is fairly remote as it is hemmed in tight between four to five hundred foot high ridges on either side. Much of the land is state owned – game commission or state forests. This is wild Elk country, but we didn’t hear or see any Elk. We did pass a black bear carcass on the side of the river. Was he a victim of a flash flood? On our last trip we spotted a bear swimming across the river. Perhaps this one tried on a day when the current was a bit too strong.
The first town we passed is Keating – a small collection of houses across from a steep ridge on the opposite shore. A few miles east we passed Renovo, a former railroad maintenance facility town that has seen better days. We didn’t stop as we were racing the sun, so we each consumed an MRE as we floated along in the 2-3 MPH current.
After Renovo, we looked for Hyner View – a small state park with a scenic overlook at the top of the ridge on the north side of the river. By now the sun was fading in the west, and we still had about 5 miles to go (a steady hour’s paddling).
We paddled steadily, until we reached McClosky Island – a gorgeous, 1.5 mile long island that splits the river a few miles south of Hyner View. As we approached the campsite -- an elevated patch at the very eastern tip – the sun was gone and by now we were paddling in slowly fading twilight.
Finally, after 10 hours on the river, we arrived at the campsite. I ran the tent and chow bag up to the site while Nathaniel secured the canoe and other gear. In 15 minutes we had camp set up and dinner cooking. It was completely dark by the time we had the canoe secured.
The site is flat, cleared, and clean -- obviously conscientious paddlers that use this small patch of private property are caring for it so it can be used again. We did not break with the pattern and left no trace.
Morning came quickly, but I kept hearing the sound of a turbine-powered prop plane doing turns about a point. It was slightly foggy, but VFR conditions. I finally crawled out of my sleeping bag and caught a glimpse of a yellow Ag-Cat doing low passes over the forest on the north shore (We saw him later downstream and figured he was probably spraying for gypsy moths).
The second day we were on the river by 8 and enjoyed decent current and spectacular views. While the river is less wild here -- a road runs up along the hillside on the right shore and a railroad is on the left (though we saw now moving trains and heard very few cars) –- the river flows through an ever-widening valley.
We enjoyed the dry air and brilliant sunshine as the day warmed. Before lunchtime we were paddling the four mile pool formed by the dam at Lock Haven. Soon we saw the enormous flood wall on river left that is meant to protect Lock Haven from the next Agnes flood. Instead it blocks the entire town from river views, and gives the river a Soviet ambience.
We secured the canoe and headed into town where the local Subway provided lunch. We refilled our water container at a local outfitter and headed back to the hard work or portaging.
The Lock Haven portage is the easiest on the Susquehanna system. There is a rip-rap ramp about 100’ upstream from the dam, and another 100’ below. We canoed to the ramp, unloaded everything, and moved the gear – I carried everything halfway, Nathaniel picked it up and moved it to the end. It was a good system and we had it all moved in no time.
We put in to the welcome fast current and headed downstream at 3. The heat of the day was past and we enjoyed the swift current and the changing scenery.
Bald Eagle creek empties into the Susquehanna just below Lock haven, and the change to the river is dramatic. Instead of sterile, clear acid-mine-drainage water, the river now became dark green and filled with life. We spotted more and more birds, fish, and plants. We even saw several stonefly and mayflies emerging (too bad this river is dammed and too warm for trout!)
We put in below the Route 220 Bridge and walked to Avis, where we visited a small convenience store. Three years ago we were here and the place was like an oven. Sure enough: “The AC is broke…” (I think the owners don’t want to turn on air conditioning before Memorial Day). We bought some Iced tea, Ice Cream, water, and pretzels.
We walked the mile and a half back, and started paddling again. We wanted to find a campsite further downstream so we could get most of the next day’s lake paddling done before lunch. We found a nice level site on river left about a mile before Pine creek. The site was on a small bench below an enormous flat field east of Avis. We kept a low profile (no fires, etc) and used the Sun Shower. Our dinner of canned chili and instant mashed potatoes was surprisingly good.
The wind picked up as night fell, and soon I was concerned about the limbs directly over our tent. They held, and the next morning dawned bright and clear. We were on the river by 7 AM, and quickly made progress towards Williamsport. We stopped in Jersey Shore for a quick bio-break, and then continued a steady paddle downstream.
By now the river is agricultural at the bottom of a very wide valley. Far in the distance on the right Bald Eagle ridge marked the south side of the valley. The northern side was not visible from river level. There are more houses, and more noise from traffic on the busy roads along the north shore. After a quick ride through some welcome riffles twelve miles of dead water paddling and a difficult portage lay ahead. But a short walk from the base of the dam lay the local Wegmans grocery store – with delicious Sub sandwiches, cannolis, fruit, and other edibles waiting for us.
We kept up a steady 4 miles per hour on the flatwater section, and by 1230 we were tied up to the rip-rap on the upstream side of the dam. We secured our gear and headed to Wegmans!
Lunch was as good as we expected despite the store being unbearably crowded. We picked up some bagels, muffins, water, and fruit and head back to the canoe and the portage.
The guide describes a portage, but I have no idea what they are talking about. So we carefully paddled up the northern shore after scouting the route. We hopped out and pulled the canoe as close to the dam as possible, then tied it up.
The portage wasn’t as hard as last time (it had been 93 degrees that day – today, it was 84 and some high clouds were helping reduce the intensity of the sun). We had packed less and consumed all our heavy food before reaching this spot. Plus we had a better system – one of us dragged gear up, the other down. Soon all the gear was moved to the downstream side of the dam. We lifted the canoe and moved it as well.
A half hour after starting the portage we were back in the water enjoying the revived current and some fresh oranges and bagels.
The river below Williamsport changes character yet again as the ridge closes in on the right and civilization fades northward. The houses and cottages are fewer and fewer, and soon the river seems wild again, with a welcome current steadily flowing south and east. We hit the best riffles of the trip on this stretch, with a complete wave lapping over the gunwales and dumping a couple of gallons of river into the bottom. A large, dark cloud appeared over the ridge to our right. I kept an eye on it – it looked like a precursor to a thunderstorm. We decided to push on to a campground in Montgomery where there would be showers and shelter.
We made our way past Muncy and the long impressive brick wall of the Wallis Mansion dating to colonial times along river left. We passed the railroad bridge that cost the lives of seven passengers on The Last Raft, a 1938 living history project which struck a bridge pier and upset the raft, towing all but one of the 47 people aboard into the chilly March water.
After Muncy the river slows again and forms a long pool, with vacation homes and trailers perched up on the right bank, and steep but short ridge enclosing the left. At the end of the pool a few islands mark the next stretch of riffles as the river plunges a couple of feet to the next pool. We ran these riffles in center stream, enjoyed the bit of action, and then paddled for Montgomery on the right bank.
Montgomery has tremendous playground facilities for such a small town – a skate park, a gorgeous Little League baseball park, slides, swings – the works. We planned on staying at a campground which was right on the edge of the river and had hot showers and shelter in case the dark clouds were in fact thunderstorms.
I failed to consider that the Friday night of Memorial Day weekend is most likely the busiest day of the year for campgrounds. I asked for a site close to the river to minimize the portaging. We ended up about 300 yards from the river. We had the showers to ourselves (25 cents for 10 minutes of water through a coin operated device) and a passel of noisy, obnoxious teenage boys in a tent right behind us. The folks across from us were pleasant and invited us to dinner.
At 930 the kids behind us were bothersome. At 1030 they were insufferable – especially after little brother joined them. The kid was hopped up on Mountain Dew and Yoo-Hoo, and would let out a blood-curdling scream every 3 minutes or so. The mother would poke her head in the tent every ten minutes or so and threaten all sorts of damage. Two minutes later the kids were back at it. A trip to the office resulted in a complaint lodged – apparently this camp means it when they threaten to evict campers that break curfew. They got quiet in a hurry – of course by now it was 1130 and our day had started at 5.
We wanted to be on the river early the next day to dodge the predicted thunderstorms. We resolved to be on the water by 7, which meant a 530 AM wakeup. I had time as I waited for sleep to concoct a plan for the morning.
We were up and packed by 645 or so. I found a nice large split log, warned the nice people that there might be a loud noise. The site picnic table was about a yard away from the tent. The sound of the log smacking that table reverberated throughout the entire campsite – it sounded like an M-16 on 3 round burst.
Then, I leaned into the tent and reverted to OCS TAC Officer / Drill Sergeant/ Command voice and yelled (very loudly): “GOOD MORNING, CUPCAKE! TIME TO RISE AND SHINE!!”
Needless to say, this was a rather surprising morning greeting for the tent filled with delinquents- in-training.
We hopped in our canoe and let out a few more wake up yells for the benefit of all, and headed downstream munching on bagels and muffins.
We paddled the last 11 miles to Milton State Park, where I contacted Enterprise, reserved a car, and we began the tasks of shuttling gear and cars to get everything where it needed to be. Rain was falling and thunderstorms were threatening. Since I already have plenty of punches in my man-card, and practicing being miserable is not on my to-do list, we called it a trip and headed for Lancaster.
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